Progress MN: Omar Ansari

Key turning point in career: Things really turned for Surly when Beer Advocate magazine named it the best brewery in the world in 2007.

What’s next: The company is working to finalize architect drawings and site selection for its new “destination brewery.”

Raise a glass to Surly Brewing Co.’s Omar Ansari for generating a renaissance on the Minnesota craft beer scene.

Ansari’s Brooklyn Center brewery, which launched in 2006, rapidly gained fans. One year after its launch, Beer Advocate magazine called his brewery the best in the world, creating a surge in demand.

“Suddenly, we had national demand for our beer and acknowledgment that our beer was as good as any other brewery out there,” Ansari said in a statement.

Such was Surly’s success that Ansari quickly decided to expand it by creating a $20 million “destination brewery” and restaurant, at a location to be determined. At the time, that was not legal. Ansari’s plans to sell glasses of his various brews on-site ran afoul of state laws designed to protect beverage wholesalers and tavern keepers.

Risking his business — he might have compromised his ability to have his beer stocked in liquor stores and bars, after all — Ansari took to social media to enlist supporters known collectively as the “Surly nation” to push for legislation to make his dream possible. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak was among the Tweeters and Facebook chirpers lending his voice.

It worked. In 2011 — only three months after the bill was first introduced — the Legislature passed the bill. Gov. Mark Dayton later signed it.

State Rep. Jenifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie, was the House author, and the late DFL Sen. Linda Scheid of Brooklyn Park, carried the bill in the Senate. Loon credits Ansari’s courage and business savvy for getting the bill on track.

“I think he was somebody who was willing to take a bit of a risk,” Loon said. “I think there is a reason that this hadn’t moved forward before — because of those risks.”

The bill faced initial opposition from the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association. But the group backed down when the law was revised to permit only brewers producing fewer than 250,000 barrels a year to open taprooms — a move the keeps the big-name brands from swooping in with their own taprooms.

The new law has created a wave of taprooms. Fulton, Staples Mill and Summit are among the local brewers in the Twin Cities that have opened them. John Stiles, spokesman for Rybak, counts at least six in Minneapolis alone.

Surly itself has yet to take advantage of the boom. Clint Roberts, a spokesman for Ansari, said Surly is still scouting sites for Ansari’s destination brewery. Architectural designs are also being finalized.

Stiles said there is no denying the economic development and social impact of the taproom boom that Ansari and the Surly nation set in motion.

“Taprooms have just been completely unleashed and the demand for them is unshakable,” Stiles said. “They are all packed, all the time. It has really added a lot to the livability of Minneapolis.”